Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto offers a critical perspective on the rise of “nutritionism” within the Western diet. He argues that most of the nutritional advice over the past sixty years has been detrimental to our health and diets. The industrialization of foods in America has lost the traditional, real, whole food items that used to contain two or three ingredients, taken over by processed, food-like mutations that hardly include recognizable ingredients. Pollan distrusts science or industry in determining what’s on the menu, notably for their failure to fully understand the science behind food.
I am supportive of his claims, but there seems to be more questions and criticisms than actual solutions and answers to the problems that surround the Western diet. The rise of highly processed foods is not a hopeful or progressive path for the industrialization of our food. The biggest concerns for Pollan seem to revolve around these changes: “The rise of highly processed foods and grains; the use of chemicals to raise plants and animals in huge monocultures; the superabundance of cheap calories of sugar and fat produced by modern agriculture; and narrowing the biological diversity of the human diet to a tiny handful of staple crops, notably, wheat, corn, and soy…lots of processed foods and meats, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of everything—except vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.” It is no wonder this diet causes sickness and obesity in our society.
The article "The Hidden Danger in Your Food" discusses the dangers of MSG (monosodium glutamate) and how it exposes humans to toxic levels glutamate, especially in children and infants. The main issue is that MSG has invaded most processed foods, fast food, and cafeteria food in some form. While the FDA has stood behind their scientific studies that show no harmful effects of MSG, other scientific studies around the world claim that MSG is a proprietor of obesity, especially among children, who are more vulnerable to MSG damage. Obesity is rising exponentially and MSG is a likely culprit.
